Carey Conference: Swanwick, Derbyshire, January 2004

150 or so people, including 35 women, were present at the Carey Conference with representatives of 15 nationalities. Praise Hymns were sung; both mornings began with prayer meetings; the report sessions from men living in a dozen countries was one of the high spots.

Geoff Thomas: "The Remarkable Jonathan Edwards."

I spoke on Edwards. A couple of streams come together in him, the metaphysical, and then he seems to be in the same category as Augustine, Baxter, Howe, Chalmers or Abraham Kuyper; you see that mentality especially in "The Freedom of the Will." Then there is the stream of the powerful preacher, and then he is in the same category as Whitefield, Henry Martyn, Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones. What interesting sermons he preaches. One that has appeared in the latest volume of his Works is entitled, "The Subject of a First Work of Grace May Need a New Conversion." I dealt with his new delight in God and experiences of God and how he describes them. Then there are his resolutions. The basis of successful resolutions are making sure that they are God-required, that their attainment lies within the enabling of grace, and a refusal to let lapses and failures derail the project. I went on to speak of his relationship with David Brainerd; the ‘Religious Affections’; Edwards’ dismissal from the Northampton church; his seven years at Stockbridge where he built his house amongst the wigwams and the Indians’ crude log cabins. Edwards and Spurgeon believed in the same system of truth, came from devout Christian homes, had formidable grandfathers, and were happily married with children. Spurgeon was as consumed with the glory and enjoyment of God as Edwards, but a far greater evangelist – not a week went by without people being converted, with more appeal and a freer offer of the gospel than Edwards.

Phil Arthur: "An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 11."

When Luther was told that the Pope alone could take the Lord’s Supper sitting, the German reformer is said to have retorted, "Let him kneel like any other stinking sinner." How do you measure a man of God? The words ‘fool’ and ‘boast’ appear often in this section. Men whom Paul knew boasted in their accomplishments, but now the time had come for Paul to engage in some boasting of his own. In the background are those who denied Paul’s right to be a leader. So the apostle felt that the time had come for him to make a direct comparison with his opponents. So Paul talks of himself for a while, but it is the exact opposite of their approach, for he presents a catalogue of defeats. How different from the promotionals of certain meetings and speakers. There is a love of ‘hype’ today, and there in Corinth an unscrupulous bunch of charlatans had taken over the church and also taken from the church. "You have put up with this!" cries Paul. He was their equal in ethnicity, and he surpassed them in everything else. Yet he lists one disaster after another that had happened to him. He was never completely secure, and unable to drop his guard anywhere. He was in danger from everyone, not safe even in the presence of professing Christians. As if this were not enough Paul went on to speak of his inner turmoil created by all the churches. All this was the apostle’s expression of achievement. Paul’s climax is his recall of an embarrassing memory of being let down on a rope in a basket in Damascus. He includes it here as a divine sign that this is what the future will be like for every true believer. This is the nature of the Christian life. Are we like the Corinthians, easily taken in by men whom we have been led to believe are real ‘leaders’? Let us beware of ambition. How far are we like Paul in glorying in weakness?

Dr Joseph Pipa: "The Law."

There has been an emphasis on the abrogation of the law of God under the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-37 is a key passage predicting the glorious new covenant. It is the fullest passage in the OT on the new covenant. The Jews were in a state of estrangement from the Lord, and were being sent into bondage. How could there be restoration? To reinforce the reality of his covenant love God tells them that he has not finished with them. There will be a new covenant.

1. THE CONTINUITY OF THE NEW COVENANT.

God will make a new covenant with them. He will sovereignly establish it. It will be the climax of covenantal administration. God always deals with men through covenants. He announces grace to Adam in the coming of a seed. There are covenants made with Noah, Abraham, Moses at Sinai, David, and the old covenant people were living in the reality of those old covenant administrations. It is in that context that this promise with Jeremiah is made. It is after the conclusion of the administration of the old covenant that these days of the new covenant will come. That is the background of the new covenant.

What is the relationship of the old covenant to the new covenant? ‘New’ can mean radically different from before, or it can mean changed, improved, better. Here ‘new’ means superior to and better than the old. I believe that the new covenant is a superior fuller manifestation of the old. The covenant, for example, is made with the house of Israel and Judah. In other words, we are the seed of Abraham and the new Israel. So we see covenantal continuity. The centrepiece is ‘I will be their God’ and that is not a new covenant. God says to his covenant people in every generation, "I am your God and you are my people." That is the great promise in the Bible from beginning to end. In verses 35 and 36 God uses the Noahic covenant to emphasise the perpetuity of the new covenant. In the book of Acts Stephen says, "You are the seed of the covenant." There is no radical discontinuity of the new to the old, but rather a huge superiority expressed, e.g. in v. 32. The text is getting to the heart of the matter. There was a God-designed imperfection in the old covenant. That covenant would be broken, but the new covenant cannot be broken and will not fail. The letter to the Hebrews emphasises that there were evidently types and shadows in the old covenant which would be fulfilled in the new covenant. The types pointed to Christ, and all that was typical would fall away and find its fulfilment in Christ. All that was lasting finds its certainly in Christ. So the new covenant is not ‘brand new’ but it fulfils all this in the new covenant. God has one plan of grace and one glorious promise which runs right through Scripture. God does not have two people, one plan for Israel and another for the church.

2. THE SUPERIORITY OF THE NEW COVENANT.

What is it? Its superiority is found in three statements. He says, "I will remember their sins no more." Why can God write his law on our hearts? Because he will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more. No more offering for sin remains because there has been a final complete sacrifice for sins. Under the old covenant, day after day sacrifice after sacrifice for sin were made. But in the new covenant the Lord Jesus has fully propitiated the law of God. By what he has done not what we have done God can say that he is our God. It is not because of our covenant faithfulness it is the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ that does all of this.

The law is now going to be internalised. He will write it on our hearts. It is the summary of the moral will of God as found in the 10 Commandments. That which was written in the old covenant is now going to be written on the tablet of our hearts. What a recovery it is in the new covenant. The law of God was in Adam’s heart but when he fell into sin the law of his heart was fragmented and broken. God gave his law to his people by revelation. There was always law in the OT administration; in an orderly way the summary of the comprehensive will of God was given to them – what a blessing that had been – but God engraved it on stone. It was external to them, and that was its weakness. In the new covenant it is engraved on our hearts. We are brought back to the state of Adam before the fall.

It means that there is but one moral law of God from the time of Adam and it is heard again from Sinai. But what of the disparaging references to the law of God, e.g. in Romans 6? Paul uses the word ‘law’ in different ways, and he is using a kind of hyperbole because he is showing the Jews the futility of the law. We aren’t under the law as covenant or curse or condemnation. All of the moral teaching of the NT is simply an application of the OT law. The teaching is all engraved on our hearts.

Do you delight in the law of God? It is from the inner man that the Christian does. At the end of the day do you say, "O how love I thy law"? This text is asking you whether you are growing in conformity to the law of God. The least of the new covenant Christians has more love and strength from God to keep the law than Old Testament disciples. We struggle and we break every commandment, but the Spirit of Christ has written it in our hearts

3. THE NEW COVENANT HAS THE INDWELLING AND ANOINTING OF THE SPIRIT.

The text is not saying we are not going to have any teachers in the New Covenant. It is saying that the Holy Spirit will speak clearly to you through the Scriptures, beginning when you are effectually called: "My sheep hear my voice." We are Christians tonight because we heard the voice of Christ. He called us. Yet it does not stop there; then the Spirit indwells us. John calls it the ‘anointing’ in I Jn. 2:27 for the anointing teaches us all things. By the anointing we hear his voice in effectual calling and in Scripture, yet there is a great common ground for all Christians. The Spirit also seals us and assures us that we belong to Jesus Christ. How superior is the new covenant. It is ours because of the work of Jesus Christ. The three things the Confession mentions in assurance are all here – the gospel promise. How do I know I believe? – because the law of God is written on our hearts. There are baby steps and then the walking and running. It is God’s work of renovation taking place in our lives. The Lord’s Supper is for our assurance.

4. THE PERPETUITY OF THE NEW COVENANT.

In verses 35-37 is a reference to the covenant with creation and it echoes the Noahic covenant and as long as those terms continue the church enjoys the privileges of the new covenant. Can you count the stars? No way. Then the new covenant will stand forever.

Never again will the church be removed from the face of God – as happened in the exile. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. It is a great encouragement to us in our evangelism. None is strong enough to take away the blessings of the new covenant. Every time you gaze at the stars you say, I am an heir of the new covenant. These grand privileges are ours. Do we all know the beauty and reality of the new covenant?

John Benton on ‘The Marriages of Ministers.’

Pastors can undermine their own marriages, consciously or unconsciously. How can this be rectified? Let us being with this:

1. A BRIEF FRAMEWORK OF MARRIAGE.

The purpose of marriage is to glorify God as is taught by creation, redemption and eschatology. To neglect your marriages is to undermine your ministry. A bad marriage disqualifies you from pastoral ministry. Marriage is a covenantal union of man and woman who become one. In practice it means closeness and intimacy, a oneness of persons and personalities, knowing one another. It is important in principle to have a loving marriage and it is important in practice because depth in principle gives strength to marriage. To scorn an intimate closeness with God is to leave your marriage weak and vulnerable.

2. FAILURE IN MARRIAGE.

I asked a number of ministers whose marriages founded what they had to say to ministers today.

i] Our weaknesses must not be overlooked. The devil will go for them at some point. He may leave you alone for some years and then the impact of your fall will be greater. The flesh is powerful. There is a proneness to the sin of lust. The flattery of a young woman can overwhelm and pander to our pride – "It’s all right. I can cope with it." Make sure that you and your wife are absolutely committed to the pastorate. We may refuse to acknowledge weaknesses in our own character. Or there may be an imbalance in our attitude to the roles of husband and wife, or too much emphasis on ‘survival’ and ‘pressure’ and ‘therapy’ so that we are turned into complainers. Compare a doctor having to see patient after patient – "O no, not another patient!!" We must not take up this ‘pressure’ mentality.

ii] Our resources can be over-stretched. Our early days in the ministry can encourage that imbalance and neglect. We can be thoughtless in wanting it all – open home, foreign holidays, a wife working, involvement in schools, non-involvement with the children on Saturdays, getting away on Sunday afternoons to leave your wife with the guests while you sleep and finish the sermon. You book things for a year’s time which seems small but as you get nearer it looms bigger and bigger – ‘the elephant on the horizon’ syndrome. You need better planning. You need to learn to say no. "There were three in this marriage," said Princess Diana, and so in our marriages the church can be the interloper. If you have a deficit in your personality, such as living for the praises of men, you are in danger. Other men are excessively conscientious. They want to give 110% to the churches. A pastor might run himself and his family into the ground because he is giving himself to the church.

iii] Our enemies must not be underestimated. The devil would devour us. The devil is the father of lies. Sometimes the devil infiltrates misconceptions in slight conversations, and rifts can open up between husband and wife.

iv] Our defences must not be under-funded. Our prayers must not be diluted. The Saviour must be increasingly adored. Our relationship with our wife has a bearing on our relationship with God. Do not underfund your marriage relationship. See this progression in giving your self to one another. It starts with giving clichés in snippets of conversation, and then it grows in giving facts, and then opinions, plans, feelings, deep needs and finally your very self. See how you need to go on into greater depths in your relationship. There must be no secret sides to your personality from your wife. Also your relationship with the other leaders of the church should result in their being supportive. Share with them.

The grace of God restores the repentant. No sin is beyond forgiveness. But what you have done may affect the rest of your life. You will be debarred from future church ministry if you have fallen into adultery – one strike and you are out.

How about us encouraging woman’s pastoral care of women? How can you pursue the welfare of other pastors? Pursue your own pastoral growth and support. This problem can be beaten. The temptations that touch us are such as are common to man.

Kirk Wellum.

‘ENCOURAGING THE MISSIONARY VISION IN OUR CHURCHES.’

How do we better reach a post-modern culture? What is postmodernism? Philosophical pluralism is the rejection of truth for it reckons that every opinion, standard and value is relative, and men must not criticise anyone else’s morality or religion. It is characterised by the loss of truth; questionings; relativism; scepticism of authority; searching for identity and for the transcendent; the knowing smirk; questing for community; materialism.

For truth to exist there must be an omniscient God who speaks to us. We must not lose confidence in the Bible, and work at communicative skills. See how wise the apostle was. In Acts 17 Paul is dealing with the market place – not with those who have any knowledge of Scripture. He went and sought them out, knowing his audience of Epicureans and Stoics. He was not easily put off. He was courteous and bold. He begins by establishing who God is, the Sovereign Creator. He commands men to turn in the light of resurrection and judgment. That is our role model. So let us do three things:
Reconstruct the Bible story explaining who God is and who men are.
Put the Biblical world view over against other world views.
Do it all in a winsome way.

PRAYER AND SHARE SESSION.

Many men packed much information into their allotted three minutes: for example, Steffano from Italy spoke of the many books now being translated. He is the third generation of Italian Christians, his grandmother was saved in a tent mission, then his father became a Christian and now him. He worked in camps and for a summer with OM, and then for four years as a cameraman for a TV station. Bologna is his home town and that is where their church is. He hopes to study theology in England after he finishes at Welwyn.
Andrew King was 11 years in Haywards Heath and has spent 4 years in Brazil. A big country with many people and a small but vibrant reformed scene. Publishing houses exist – PES (run by Bill Barclay) and Fiel (run by Richard Denham). Who will succeed these older men? There is some polarisation between Baptists and Presbyterians and that fellowship of reformed brethren should not broken. The issue today is not the five points. I would like to hear even a decent Arminian sermon. What you get is, "Come to our church and your children will be better behaved, and your marriage will improve, and you will prosper" There is enough truth in those words, but it is not the gospel. The translation of scores of Dr Lloyd-Jones’ books into Portuguese has made a tremendous impact on the pulpit.
Romanian Dinu Moga spoke of publishing in his country. "Torch’ publishing is the name of the firm. He is a member of a 3,700 member church. It has planted 30 churches. Last year Robert Oliver and Erroll Hulse spoke at their conference. The Baptist churches are growing with 130,000 members today. Pray that Romania will continue to have the freedom that it has now. Lloyd-Jones is the best seller in Romania. Dinu has translated Ephesian volumes, and has finished Grudem’s Systematics too. Pennsylvanian Bob Carr now in Russia spoke of the work there. They have translated Tedd Tripp ‘Shepherding a Child’s Heart’ and other books.
Slava Viazovski from Belarus heads the EP office there. He has worked for the EP for almost a year. A better centre was recently found for the office, moving 8 tons of books in the process. They have published "The Forgotten Spurgeon" by Iain Murray. Spurgeon is the real hero in Baptist churches in Belarus. But no one knows him, and then this book shows these overwhelmingly Arminian churches that Spurgeon is in fact their ‘enemy’, for they hate Calvinism. In November there was an EP Conference with Jim Renihan and Iain Murray. Slava was Iain’s translator. Everyone said this was the best conference they have ever had. They plan to publish 8 books a year.
Mark Pickett is from Nepal. He had been there for 18 years, a country of 25 million people. Tibet is on one side of the Himalayas and Nepal on the other. The ethnic mix is Chinese and Indian. In the 50s the churches began to grow and picked up during the 80s and 90s at the same time as the democracy movement spread, and so the church grew with now an estimated 200 or 300 thousand Christians. There has been a Maoist upsurge and now they control most of the country. The Maoists have not bothered the church whose biggest problem is not understanding the gospel. Most Protestants in Nepal are Pelagian – you do this and this and this and then you become a Christian.. How to understand the gospel in the Nepalese church is its greatest problem.
John Gibbons of Mongolia was reading Romans 15:20 some years ago. There Paul talks of going to places where the gospel had not been heard before. "I shared my concern with my prayer group and then a man approached me ten days later. He had seen a copy of a letter from an Academy in Mongolia requesting a Bible." John went to Leeds and studied Mongolian for a few years. He went there and has translated the New Testament and then the whole Bible. He went by means of the Anglo-Mongolia cultural agreement. Mark’s gospel was the first piece to be translated. At that time there was not a Christian in Mongolia. In 1972 the nation was utterly ignorant of Jesus Christ. He went back from 1977 to 1980. He returned in 1984 when Andropov became the Soviet Secretary, praying then that God would release these people. Mongolia had been socialist state since 1921. In 1987 John got back there and married his Mongolian wife – who had waited 8 years for him – and then when the Russians backed down at the time of Reagan John Gibbon got back into the country. They got 5000 copies of the New Testament published, and the next step will be translating the Bible into the dialects of Mongolian. "Some translations have been bad. One says that it was the Mongolian god who made the world. So we translate books – and the best-seller is Alleine’s ‘Alarm to the Unconverted.’ Who is reading it? People who dont go to church but who have a New Testament and read books. God has supplied our needs."

Philip Arthur: "Paul and the Thorn in the Flesh."

2 Corinthians 12:1ff

How does the work of God get done? This section answers that question. In the first six verses Paul describes how he had been lifted up by visions and revelations of the Lord. He is reluctantly taking on the false teachers who were claiming direct words and sights from God. One revelation especially had been given to Paul, particularly intense and moving. He had received it simply as a man in Christ, and was caught up to the third heaven, to the very paradise. Words deserted him in describing what he had heard and saw there. It was also designed to be a private communion between God and him. Paul was concerned that people would idolise him and think too highly of him – how different from our concern that we are not getting the recognition we merit.

Paul was also cast down. He had ‘a thorn in the flesh.’ Various suggestions have been made to specify what that was. It created a crisis in his ministry. The devil was using the thorn to try to pull Paul down, and at the same time Almighty God was using the self-same ‘thorn’ to make Paul more usable and godlike. Paul’s response was three seasons of prayer focused on the request that the thorn be removed. God’s answer was Christ’s grace was sufficient for him to live with the thorn. What God’s people need at times of enormous testing and pain is that God stands beside them and strengthens them. Think of Interpreter’s House and the oil at the back of a fireplace being poured on the water-drenched fire, keeping it going. That is what keeps us going and all those Christians who have suffered deeply. It is Paul’s reticence that is so mightily impressive. Could God trust us with mighty blessing? Are we ready for what might follow that?

KIRK WELLUM "Preaching on Judgment in our Evangelistic Ministry."

In a number of places the expressions of God’s anger with sin are powerful, even extreme, both in the OT and NT, on the lips of the prophets and apostles but also on the lips of Christ himself. Is this emphasis being reflected in evangelical pulpit ministries? These doctrines are not understood in a ‘felt needs’ and ‘user-friendly’ ethos. It has not always been well done in the past. A brash condemning to hell has characterised some sermons, a ‘lashing out’ at our enemies. Others crave the very opposite, to be accepted by the world, with a tolerance of ‘ideas’ so that judgment and wrath and hell are toned down lest we offend. Again, our personal sinfulness limits our plain speaking. If we have wandered from God how can we preach the righteous judgments of God? The liberals consider hell to be outmoded: "the OT has passed away" etc. So very few today believe that God is a God of wrath. Some evangelicals join up with the world’s outlook on this.

How important is the doctrine of judgment. We will not get the gospel right if we cannot understand God’s judgment. We will not preach the gospel right, we will not understand God himself, and we will not grasp the essential nature of the cross.

What is the judgment of God?

He is an angry God and sinners are in his hands. He is not angry in the sense of being capricious, and indulgent. He is not wantonly or irresponsibly angry. He is always in control of himself. Everything he does is consistent with his grace, patience and holiness. So his judgments are just judgments. When he pours out his wrath it is an exercise of a holy and sovereign God. What they have chosen for themselves and what they deserve is what they are receiving from a just God. They have passed judgment on themselves. The full implications of the choice they have made they receive. A God who is not wrathful would be an unholy terror. Such a god would be more terrible than the devil. God cares enough to act and to punish sin in his moral universe. In the end evil will be punished and everybody who rebels against the Creator will be judged.

The themes of today’s mega-movies speak of the cosmic nature of judgment on wickedness as well as faithfulness and friendship. Wickedness is judged. Why? Because this is the world God has made and we are made in the image of God and that universe resonates inside all men. We tell men that they are all going to stand before him.

If you collated all the biblical teaching of wrath you would see that as well as a present divine wrath now coming on human beings, there will be the final manifestation of wrath which will be revealed in the great day. Think of the Supertramp song, "When all the world’s asleep, The questions run so deep". God is now giving men over to his wrath. It is seen in false religions spreading, and sexual perversion evident, and the nation approving of men who act like this. There is yet to be a future display of wrath, that of which the Lord Jesus spoke so often and clearly. Imagine being consigned to a place where there is never any rest. It is beyond comprehension, yet God deems it to be just.

How should we preach God’s wrath?

With a sense of constraining holy obedience, as this message is clearly found in the Bible. The message must be preached within the larger context of the biblical framework of God’s holiness. It must be preached compassionately, as those who feel the weight of judgment so deeply. The Lord Jesus wept over the city. We must not be swash-buckling in handling the world of God. Hell must be preached alongside heaven. The two are intertwined. What kind of place would heaven be if people were there irrespective of their moral condition? How many lies are spoken in funerals about the deceased. The righteousness of heaven demands the punishment of unrighteousness. Heaven is all the more glorious because it is the opposite of hell. Fear and love should be balanced in our preaching. Fear is a legitimate biblical attitude – "Remember Lot’s wife . . . our God is a consuming fire", etc. There is the other way, of magnifying the love of God. We are not just escaping something, we are embracing someone. Ravi Zecharias told the story of Stalin plucking a living chicken held under his arm, and then casting crumbs before the half-plucked bird so that the chicken followed him around the room. Stalin told his thugs that that was the way to subdue people of the Soviet Republic. Is that how we get people to obey the Lord, by threats? Who obeys the cancer warnings on the cigarette packets? What athlete trembles before the doctors’ warning of the dangers of anabolic steroids, if there is a possibility of winning the Olympic gold? We must always be preaching the doctrine of the Lamb of God propitiating the wrath of God. Let us magnify the work of Jesus Christ. The precious blood of the Son has made us clean. So "Come to Jesus and welcome." That is our message.

JOSEPH PIPA. ‘The Lord’s Day." 11.45

Biblical Calvinism has always included a system of living as well as a system of doctrine. The latter should lead to the former and if the latter is lost the former is lost too. When the Sabbath goes piety goes and when piety goes then doctrine also goes. There are certain things to which the church should be committed, and one of those is the role of the Lord’s Day in the life of the churches.

In Exodus 31 the Sabbath is the covenantal sign for Israel. Certainly, but it continues to be a sign for the new covenant people too. God has ordained the careful observance sign as a perpetual sign of his covenantal people.

1] GOD CALLS US TO CAREFUL OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.

Here is a very explicit command in Exodus 31:13-15. There are the ceremonial Sabbaths which are to be observed as the covenant people. It is a keeping that regards a weekly day as holy. There is a threefold emphasis on its importance. This is the fourth of six times that this command is repeated in the book of Exodus and the sixth of eight times that it is found in the first two books of the Bible. Now God gives the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. Work on the Tabernacle is not to be done on the Sabbath. The structure of the text also emphasises the commandment – "But as for you, speak . . ." This is what God wanted him to deliver, but "You shall surely observe my Sabbaths . . ." It entails two things, a cessation of all normal work and a celebration. A day in which no work is to be done – that is to characterise the Sabbath. You keep the day holy by ceasing from your work.

The pattern for this is God’s own day of rest. God kept Sabbath by ceasing from his labours. In the previous six days he had completed the work of creation. It is a pattern of our cessation from all work. Thus the careful observance of the Sabbath is seen when we are kept free from labouring. The book of Isaiah enlarges it and proclaims the blessings that come to those who make it our delight. The Sabbath is not a work day or causing others to work. The sojourner was not being asked to work on the Sabbath. God calls us here to turn aside from our labours and normal vocations. Even preachers are not to prepare (in a study afternoon) sermons. Contemplate the great works of God. God refreshed himself on the Sabbath. This is the key to our own Sabbath keeping, modelling our own on his Sabbath observance. God took great delight in the creation and hope of redemption and said, "That is good." God enjoyed it and celebrated it. He was no ascetic. We are to follow him: "The sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath . . ." (Ex.31:16).

So it was not a rest of idleness in a cessation of ordinary activities. God has cleared the deck. We have stopped with the negative emphasis of what we are n